English Script Request

You are listening to a program from BBC Radio 4.

The Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin, who is chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, good morning to you.

Good morning.

I've always been rather intrigued by the story of the Samaritan woman who engaged with Jesus. She was someone who would have been looked down on and ignored, but Jesus saw her for who she was - an encounter that left her feeling truly respected. She did not keep this to herself, she went off to gather other women to come and see for themselves and, in effect, to have the same positive experience.

I often wonder what kind of society I would be living in today had it not been for the courage and the sacrifice made by the suffragettes. In the midst of the struggle for equality, there were those a hundred years ago whose intention was just to extend the status quo to an additional, privileged few. There is always a danger that we become content with the minimum of change, that benefits only a few, or with the thought "Let's be grateful for small mercies." And we should not forget that there will be those women who will not join the movement for change, whatever their reasons.

The suffragettes, not appreciated by many because of the methods used to achieve their purpose, had as their motto "deeds, not words." For example, the suffragettes acknowledged that they had planted a bomb underneath the bishop's enthronement chair - a symbol of male power, as far as they could see.

One hundred years later, in May, a woman will take her place on that same enthronement chair, when Bishop Sarah Mullalley is installed as the one hundred and thirty-third Bishop of London.

We have come a long way, and in the light of the hashtag MeToo and the TimesUp campaigns, one gets a sense that we still have a long way to go. When Martin Luther King Junior made one of his most famous speeches, in which he spoke of his dream for his children, it reverberated far beyond America. His call was that they should not be judged on the colour of their skin, but on the content of their character.

Today, we need also to witness the women not being judged on the basis of their gender. Much is being done as we show the next generation what is possible through projects like "One Hundred Women," but this dream can only become a reality when we embrace the motto of the suffragettes: deeds, not words. The deeds we engage in should be deeds that continue to disturb the world 'til all women are free, not just the privileged few.

Deeds, not words.

And that was "Thought for the Day" with the Reverend Rose Hudson-Wilkin.